Other worlds pop in and out of view when the perspective shifts by degrees

Name: Other worlds pop in and out of view when the perspective shifts by degrees | Aeon Videos
Uploaded: 2018-10-01
Duration: 4 min
Description: Other worlds pop in and out of view when the perspective shifts by degrees

In this excerpt from the film Downside Up (1984) by the UK director Tony Hill, a camera orbits at 90 degrees over a country picnic, with the perspective eventually flipping upside down before disappearing into the ground. What follows is a merry-go-round of quotidian scenes – pigs in a barn, children playing beside a stone wall, a kitchen table – each emerging from darkness, as the filmmaker uses inventive editing and camera-rigging techniques to give the impression of a ‘double-sided ground flipping like a tossed coin’. Technically impressive, the film is also a thought-provoking exploration of point of view, and how our exteroception, especially our relationship to the ground, shapes our perspective.

Director: Tony Hill

1 October 2018

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